Privacy Policy

This privacy statement sets out how Wycombe Women’s Aid uses and protects any information that you provide to us. Wycombe Women’s Aid will only collect, process and store information about you that you have willingly provided. We aim to be open about collecting this information and clear about what we will use it for.

Wycombe Women’s Aid is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected and this statement sets out how Wycombe Women’s Aid uses and protects any personal data that we hold, and your rights around your own data. Please see the section of this statement on ‘Your rights’ for more information on how to exercise those rights, including how to access your data and how to object to your data being processed.

Personal data is any information that relates to a living, identifiable person. This can include your name, contact details and other information we gather as part of our relationship with you. We only process data if we need it for a specific purpose, as explained below, and we only keep it for as long as is necessary for those purposes before securely destroying it. Some retention periods are based on legal requirements while others take into account practical needs to keep the data.

Wycombe Women’s Aid may change this statement from time to time and you should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This statement is effective from May 2018.

Clients

In order to provide help and support to women affected by domestic violence and abuse, we collect your name (if you choose to provide it) and contact details, and information about your situation, and what help and support you need so we can provide our services or process an enquiry that you have made. We will also ask you for feedback on our services.

We process your information on the legal basis of your consent and/or our legitimate interests of being able to support you in the most appropriate way, as well as to understand how effective our services are. We will always be careful about how we contact you, and keep your information strictly confidential, sharing details only with the people involved in your care, unless we fear for your imminent safety and believe you need the help of another agency such as the police or the NHS. There are times when we may be forced to share your information with police, regulatory bodies or legal advisers without your permission (sometimes referred to as ‘breaching confidentiality’). This could be for one of the following reasons:

where you are disclosing information about an act of terrorism

where a court orders Wycombe Women’s Aid to disclose information

where there is reasonable cause to suspect that an adult’s life may be in immediate danger

where there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child or young person may be experiencing or at risk of experiencing significant harm

Supporters

We rely on donations to support our services, which are provided free to those who need them. To process donations we collect and process your name, contact details, and information about the donation and any Gift Aid. This is based on the legal basis of pursuing our legitimate interests of receiving donations to support our work.

Employment / volunteering

When you apply to work for us, as an employee or as a volunteer to provide our services, we collect information as part of the application and recruitment procedure including your name, contact details and experience, and we ask for references and criminal information. When you work with us we will continue to process your personal data in order to manage our relationship with you. This processing is based on the legal basis of it being necessary for your employment contract or for pursuing our legitimate interests of managing the employee/volunteer relationship, and protecting the people we provide services to.

Other people we work with

When we work with you to provide education or training we will process your name, contact details and some information about your work, in order to arrange and manage the provision of appropriate sessions. We will also ask you for feedback on the education or training. This processing is necessary to provide the sessions, and for pursuing our legitimate interests of evaluating and improving the education and training we offer.

We are a member of the Women’s Aid Federation of England (WAFE) and we take part in national research to improve the kind of support that women, children and young people receive around domestic abuse. We share anonymised statistical data with WAFE to support research and campaigning for more and better services to support those experiencing domestic abuse. No information that could identify you will be shared or made public as a result of this research.

We also share anonymised statistical data with commissioning services, as well as other funders, to demonstrate the impact of the services we are funded to provide.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access, disclosure or loss, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect and hold.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies. If you wish to use the website then you will have accepted the cookie warning the first time you accessed the website. If you do not accept cookies on your browsing device some of the functions on the website may not work without cookies being enabled, or you may see a reduction in functionality. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. You will find details on how to block and delete cookies from your computer by exploring the setup of the browser you use. All browsers offer the ability to block cookies, or remove them.

Cookies we use

Google Analytics

These cookies collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and, if they get error messages from web pages, what searches they may have done on the website. These cookies do not collect personally identifiable information; all information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. This data helps Wycombe Women’s Aid to understand:

which pages people visit on the site

which internet browsers are being used

what is popular on the site

Google maps

These are session cookies that remember preferences you have when viewing a map which is on the website.

WordPress

Wycombe Women’s Aid’s website is built with WordPress which uses a number of plugin applications. Some of these applications use cookies and some of them are persistent and remember choices you have made on the website. Others are session cookies which expire on exit from the browser.

Third Party cookies

We do not use any cookies through third parties for advertising or pushing advertising content to you. This is an advert free website.

We cannot use any information from cookies to find out further personal information about you and we do not make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website.

Records

Records are held both electronically and on hard copy. Our client database, Oasis, is operated by IT Works and is held on secure servers in the UK. Our employee and volunteer files are held in hard copy. Hard copy records of any personal information relating to supporters, clients, employees or volunteers are locked away at our offices until they are securely destroyed at the end of the relevant retention period (for example we are legally required to keep a record of donations subject to Gift Aid for 7 years to comply with HMRC rules). We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis and we will only hold your personal information for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity. We make sure that personal information is only seen by people who need to view it for their work and that Wycombe Women’s Aid workers are trained in protecting information.

We will not sell, distribute, lease or otherwise share your personal information with third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.

We do not carry out any profiling of visitors to our website and we do not provide any targeted advertising from third party providers.

Your rights

You have a right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you. If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to us, or e-mail us, as soon as possible and we will promptly correct any discrepancies.

You also have a right to correct, delete or restrict your personal data. You may ask us to send your information to someone else, or to give you information in a way that makes it easy for you to pass on. You can also object to, or withdraw, your permission for us to process your information, which we will do unless it is necessary for the purpose you have provided it, such as processing your donation.

If you want to exercise any of these rights, please send your request in writing, along with proof of your identity, by post to:

Wycombe Women’s Aid Ltd

PO Box 1477

High Wycombe

HP11 9HP

If we are relying on your consent to process your data, you can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us.

If you are not happy about the way in which we are processing your personal data, please contact us at wwal@btconnect.com. You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about the way in which we process your personal information. You can make a complaint on the ICO’s website https://ico.org.uk/